You know when road signs say (for example) "Brighton 43 miles"...

[Lady Whistledown]

...where in the relevant town/city do they measure that to/from?

Where is the point in Brighton from where distances are calculated? And London? Is it from a geographical centre, or just a particular notable landmark? Or just the outer boundary?

 

[Spicy]

I know the answer to the London question - it's Trafalgar Square. Unsure about the theory behind it though.

 

[Easy 10]

Because its in the centre ?

Just a wild stab.

 

[franks brother]

brighton town hall i think

 

[John Boy]

...where in the relevant town/city do they measure that to/from?

Where is the point in Brighton from where distances are calculated? And London? Is it from a geographical centre, or just a particular notable landmark? Or just the outer boundary?

I'm sure Brighton is the Old Steine/ Royal Pavillion

 

[Gordon Bennett]

I know the answer to the London question - it's Trafalgar Square. Unsure about the theory behind it though.

For some reason I always thought that London was measured from Charing Cross - something to do with the cross bit not the railway station.

 

[kjgood]

For London its actually Charing Cross, the stone where all distances to London are measured from is right outside the station.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

Because its in the centre ?

Just a wild stab.

Yeah, but over the years, the central point of a city changes, doesn't it, which is why I wasn't sure

 

[Everest]

I thought it was from the map with an arrow that says "you are here"

 

[seagullwedgee]

London's epicentre for the purposes of distance measurement is actually Marble Arch.

 

[ali jenkins]

Brighton is definatly the Royal Pavilion.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

I've found several different answers for London by Googling it, which is why I turned to the wisdom of NSC.

This is EXACTLY the sort of thing that Lord Bracknell would have the DEFINITIVE answer to.

 

[Gordon Bennett]

Well, this maybe answers the question about London, from the BBC website:

Whether it is the distance from Brighton, Manchester or Glasgow, the actual point for measuring the distance to and from London is located at Charing Cross, Westminster.

Why Charing Cross? Even though it is quite central it is not because of its geographical location, the real reason goes back over 700 years to the reign of Edward I.

In the year 1290 King Edward was in Scotland on an important trip awaiting the arrival of his wife, Queen Eleanor. On her journey to meet him she was taken ill with a fever and died shortly after at a manor house near Lincoln.
The Queen's body was to be taken from Lincoln to Westminster Abbey for a state burial. The grief stricken King decided that twelve memorial crosses would be installed at each stopping point of her funeral procession.

The twelve sites for memorial crosses were:
Lincoln, Grantham, Stamford, Geddington, Hardingstone, Stony Stratford, Woburn, Dunstable, St. Albans, Waltham, Cheapside (West Cheap), Charing Cross.

The original cross was south of Trafalgar Square where the statue of King Charles I now stands. A plaque can be found on the floor behind the statue stating that mileage distances on road signage are still measured from this point.

Only three of the original crosses remain at Geddington, Hardingstone and Waltham. The cross outside Charing Cross Station is a replica made in 1863 of the original that stood at the original site a few hundred metres away. Historians believe the original was not as ornate as the one seen today. The original memorials were large stone structures towering many feet high with carvings of the queen on each of the sides.

 

[Spun Cuppa]

It used to a be a stone near King's Cross station, but nobody could find it, so they 'moved' it to the saloon bar of The Flying Scotsman, and regarding the Brighton conundrum, it is actually the centre of the mini-roundabout at The Palace Pier. So there you go

 

[TS90]

and some people say forums like this are a waste of time.

 

[The Brighton Bear]

Someone told me, a long time ago, that the centre of Brighton was St Peter’s Church.

 

[Paxton Dazo]

Brighton is the Pavillion, London is Hyde Park.

I think .

 

[Man of Harveys]

In London it's definitely Charing Cross. And not the station, nor the Victorian replica of the original monument which stands outside it but a point which I'm pretty sure is signposted as a road called Charing Cross, just as Northumberland Avenue swings around to the top end of Whitehall.

As for Brighton, dunno. Palace Pier roundabout maybe?

 

[Gumbo]

I was told years ago by a know it-all Pickfords driver that is was measured to the main post office. Sounds plausable as every city/town/village has one. Well they used to!!

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Brighton is definatly the Royal Pavilion.

Not The Brighton Centre?